Merrill C. Oaks

Merrill Clayton Oaks passed peacefully from this life on December 30, 2024, after a lengthy struggle with a chronic disease related to cancer. He was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, to Lloyd E. Oaks M. D. and Stella Harris Oaks on January 12, 1936. At age four, his father died, leaving his mother to raise their three young children, Dallin, Merrill, and Evelyn. After living in Vernal, Utah, the family moved to Provo in 1948, where Merrill graduated from BY High School in 1954. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Ontario, Canada 1956-1958. While attending Brigham Young University he met and married Josephine Ann (Jo) Christensen from Payson, Utah, thereafter graduating from BYU with High Honors. Merrill received his M.D. degree from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. He served an internship at the University of Kentucky before specializing in Ophthalmology (diseases and surgery of the eye) at Washington University of St. Louis, The Barnes Hospital. Near the end of his training, accompanied by his wife and three small children, he drove to San Salvador, El Salvador, where he performed eye surgery in the city’s main charity hospital for three months. 

In 1967, Dr. Oaks returned to Provo to join the practice of his uncle, Dr. L. Weston Oaks and practiced for 29 years. He served a term as president of the medical staff at Utah Valley Hospital and later was President of the Utah Ophthalmology Society. He and Robert Hales, M.D., together did the first cataract surgeries in Utah that included implanting an artificial lens, which is now standard practice. 

Merrill and Josephine were active in community service as well as in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Merrill’s church service included many teaching and administrative callings, including serving twice as a bishop, counselor in a stake presidency, and stake president. He retired from his practice in 1996 to serve as President of the Washington Seattle Mission. In 1998, he was called to be a General Authority, as a member of the Seventy. He served as a counselor in the U.S. Southwest and the Utah North area presidencies and as a counselor and Area President in the Philippines. He and Josephine later served as president and matron of the Winter Quarters, Nebraska Temple. 

His family, patients, employees, and those he led in the church appreciated Merrill's kindness and understanding. 

In his final years, he devoted time and resources to the Stella H. Oaks Foundation, a public charity named after his mother, devoted to raising funds to help single mothers complete additional educational training to improve their earning ability. 

Merrill loved church history and the biographies of earlier and current church leaders. In the final several years of his life, he completed his personal history for his family, where he recorded his testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and many spiritual reassurances he had experienced.  

He is survived by his wife, Josephine Ann Christensen, and nine children, Kathleen (James G. McLaren), Julianna (Howard B. Gee), Amy Jo (Lance N. Long), Gregory Merrill (Susan McDougal), Marlo McKay (Elaine Judd), Tarali (David Rail), Leticia (David M. Strong), Dana Christensen (Anna Morgan) Sterling Clayton (Amanda Ridge), 42 grandchildren and a growing number of great-grandchildren, and his brother Dallin H. Oaks (Kristen McMain) and sister Evelyn (Lyman Moody). 

The family gives special thanks to Brandelee Breckenridge and other care providers with Home Instead. 

Merrill’s funeral will be held at the Foxhill Ward, 200 S. Eagle Ridge Dr., North Salt Lake, Utah on Saturday, January 4, 2025 at 11 a.m. Viewings will be held at the same location on Friday, January 3, 2025 from 7 to 9 p.m. and Saturday, January 4, 2025 from 9-10:30 a.m. Interment will be in the Provo Cemetery. 

As a family, we wish to express our gratitude for the love and support we feel. The family is compiling memories and would love for you to share yours with us. If you would like to contribute, please send your memories and photos to: Merrillcoaksmemories@gmail.com 

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to the Stella H. Oaks Foundation (Stellahoaks.org).

Funeral services will be live streamed by the ward on Zoom at:  https://zoom.us/j/98519102167?pwd=OVMyNWc0SFdhaW5CbWpNQVVvT0NXUT09  Webinar ID: 985 1910 2167 Passcode: Foxhill 

Services will also be streamed live on the Russon Mortuary Live Facebook page and on this obituary page. The live stream will begin about 10-15 minutes prior to the service and will be posted below.